How environmental regulation affects China’s rare earth export?

Abstract

China’s rare earth export trade has developed so rapidly since 1990s that China has gradually occupied a leading position in the international market. However, this fast development was proceeding at the cost of the rare earth energy consumption and environmental devastation. Now China begins to attach great importance to environmental protection, which attracts many researchers. This study aims to analyze the influence of environmental regulation on China’s rare earth export trade. And the original study is amongst the few to examine the relationship between environmental regulation and China’s rare earth export with the product-level data. Different from previous studies, this paper selects China’s rare earth export data from 1995 to 2015 and introduces product heterogeneity based on the rare earth production process. Moreover, this study uses the entropy weight method to measure the intensity of environmental regulation. The core conclusions are as follows: (1) Environmental regulation significantly promotes rather than restrains China’s rare earth export. (2) According to the rare earth production process, this paper divides rare earth products into 3 kinds, that is, rare earth raw materials, rare earth useful components and rare earth end-use applications. Then, it is found that rare earth useful component export in processing and smelting is positively affected by environmental regulation. Rare earth raw materials and end-use applications in China’s export are hardly affected. (3) Technological innovation has a mediating effect on the impact mechanism of environmental regulation on China’s rare earth export, which means that environmental regulation significantly promotes technological innovation of enterprises, and thereby the rare earth export is increased. The findings are helpful for policymakers to resolve the issue of environmental devastation.

Роль Політики Сприяння Експорту В Індустріальному Розвитку (На Прикладі Азійських Країн)

“…Ч. Секкі і А. Беладонна [9], Ю. Кіндзерський [10; 11; 12] дослідили особливості реалізації структурної політики як складової політики індустріальних трансформацій. Інституційні пастки розвитку розкрили А. Пан, С. Фенг, Х. Ху і Й. Лі [13] і Дж. Стадвелл [14].…”

Impact of the Rare Earths Market on the Economic and Energy Security of States: Prospects for the Institutional Regulation of Resource Confrontation and the Innovative and Technological Potential of a Competitive Green Economy

“…Ivashchenko, O. (2021), " On the relationship between the concepts of "green growth", "sustainable development", and "green economy": from conflict to consensus", Materialy VIІІ Mizhnarodnoyi naukovo-praktychnoyi…”

Application of Molecular Imprinting for Creation of Highly Selective Sorbents for Extraction and Separation of Rare-Earth Elements

“…It is rare-earth metals that in the last decade have caused the greatest concern among developed and developing countries due to their strong integration into the production chains of high-tech industries and the level of uncertainty involved in providing this type of raw material [ 3 ]. At the same time, in addition to the global geopolitical situation, the rare-earth industry is developing naturally due to scientific and technological progress and free competition [ 4 ]. There are new technologies and innovative products (and hence new demand), to which companies respond by modifying and reducing the cost of the production processes of their products.…”